06/02: Don't Stop Believing (a look at popular lyrics) and (the) Journey
1970s rock group Journey does Don't Stop Believing here.
The song lyrics are fairly audible, but not 100%. So I paste them here below:
Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere
A singer in a smoky room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night
Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice just one more time
Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on
Don't stop believin'
Hold on to that feelin'
Streetlight people
I like the energy of the song and I like the guitar solo. It has the stamp of youth on it: expressiveness, energy, observation, evaluation, taking risks, not giving up hope, questioning the system, having confidence and conviction in a brighter and better day.
Should we try to get into the lyrics at all? Should we probe beneath the electro-voltage of amps and guitar wailing and the decibels of the drummer's beat? They are all vehicles for the message, the mood conveyed, the ideas inlaid, the temper of the times assigned to a day. What words and ideas are presented there? Apart from the melody (http://vimeo.com/8497104, what other aspects of this song make it have such broad appeal?
What exactly are they believing in? Anything substantive? Themselves as noble or heroic or aspiring humans? Sharing the night with a stranger or newly found friend or acquaintance? [Famous band members pick up smiling bed mates after concert?] Aimlessness? Idle people just hanging out by a public square? The addiction of gambling?
But oh the "Streetlight people, living just to find emotion / Hiding, somewhere in the night." The unemployed, the beggars, the drifters, the outcast, the barely surviving (different from the aggressive bearly surviving). In the 13th Arabic Hidden Word, Baha'u'llah writes: I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? ..." , but also says in the 25th Arabic Hidden Word, O Son of Spirit! Vaunt not thyself over the poor, for I lead him on his way...
These images are set before us, and then whammo! we are told not to stop believing! In what? In all these things that are listed and are presumably (most of them) good? Well, all right, youth is youth, and youth is the time for identity searching. From 15 to 25, most people go there various phases and follow different fads, checking out this and that. Or some behave as if they want to extend their childhood forever. Life is for frivolities and nothing more.
How does G-d's latest Manifestation, Baha'u'llah, view the human and the phases of life? Well, first of all, the age of maturity is set at 15. This is an age technically where one can declare oneself as a Baha'i. So it is not purely a matter of inheritance and following Mom or Dad's tradition. It would therefore seem incumbent that pre-youth (from about 12 to 15) should receive special attention, special educational initiatives that would deepen them in all aspects of comparative religion, the details and depths of the Dharma Drama. One should provide as wide and thorough and unbiased a picture as possible so that the pre-youth could decide if and one they would care to declare themselves as baby Baha'is at the legal age of 15.
How is the world doing in this regard? Are there any such groups that are trying to work towards this noble goal, to address not only the physical side of maturity, but the emotional and intellectual and spiritual side, too, since each person is a 4-way intersection of those aspects?
The top administrative, globally elected body of the Baha'i Faith, The Universal House of Justice, has stressed the importance of this to the Baha'is and therefore to the world at large. Of course, each person can contemplate and make their own decision as to the importance of this.
But they would be well to recall the words of Fanny Howe in her book The Wedding Dress: Meditation on Word and Life:
But often theology assumes the language of conviction, overdetermining the answers of its own questions. Theology can offer no evidence or proof to show for its conclusions, beyond the magnificence of language. While it is not free from current anxiety about the place of the human in the universe, about the human's right to exist at ll, theology is stuck with the word "God" as the beginning of itself and therefore its end."
She mentions Carmelite nun Edith Stein who noticed that our perception of objects requires that we notice the space around. In fact, she says that emptiness — space — teaches us to mistrust the location of the 'I' inside us... Space subsumes the structure of the person by waiting for it. Empty space precedes, succeeds, and accompanies our motions."
She calls this the zero point of orientation. Howe says more on it and even mentions that The Zohar, a collection of mystical interpretations of the Pentateuch, talks about this, equating or calling it Zero, the Supreme Will, or God.
[I intend to explore this role of the concept of Zero in both math and theology in a later bloggit. Suffice it for now to say that Zero is the only number that blows away other number, since n*0=0 for any real number that exists in the world of infinite numbers. Additively, n+0=n and this is of no benefit.
The American mathematician and inventor, R. Buckminster Fuller, gave us the equation Universe = Physical * Metaphysical. In other words, he too saw that the relationship of the reality of things involves the spiritual or metaphysical dimension and, also, that the relationship is multiplicative. Life is not a zero-sum game where one wins and the other loses. We are profoundly connected and implicated in ways that we can see only through spiritual eyes and insight.
When I was in Tanzania in the mid-70s, I correlated religion and science by putting the Baha'i modular 19-month calendar on the triangular sides of the 20-sided Platonic solid called the icosahedron. On the 20th side, I put the particular year according to the Baha'i Era count (possibly 131 or 132). I sent a copy to Bucky Fuller since he was the expert on icosahedron and all things mathematical. I did receive a thank you note back. But I was reassured in some small way when I saw that he had put that cosmic equation given above. He talked about each person's OmniDirectional Halo. Nowadays, some pop singers are catching up to the research of science and religion.
Please note that the original Icosahedral Baha'i calendar was made of gestetner stenciled paper stuck on thin cardboard that was cut out, edges interlocked, and painted blue perhaps with watercolors. There were no squishable bubbles on each triangular face, but perhaps the new version could have that.
With N people in a particular group, there are (N2 - N)/2 possible threads of conversation or dialogue. Considering that even in a village of of 100 people, there are 4950 possible different dialogues that can take place.
Why has Baha'u'llah also told us that we should solve disputes and misunderstandings and in fact any small or serious problem through consultation. And what does anybody know or what is being taught these days about the art of consultation, the variety of religions and other credo cribs, the 4 or 16 temperaments, and the sheer diversity that is such an essential fact in the human family?
A music student who know how to write the musical score for MIDI obviously let their talent shine through in putting the song into a Mario Brothers video game version. This broadens the appeal of song, thus encouraging young people to espouse these precious values that are set forth in the song, or even to start to envy the band members and their lay-away plan.
Well, let us suppose that there are other things to believe in. Is belief something that is cast in concrete, a set of principles, historical interpretations, values, and cosmic vision that is in sympathy with our mindset? Once established, should one ever change one's beliefs? How critical should one be on this?
Those with different sets of belief may find it hard to establish any middle ground. This can give rise to cynicism, perhaps even lead to hostilities. Beliefs are seated as much in the heart as they are in the mind. This emotional response is an indication that there is something deep to this subject. We might call it our soul-ar slant, our belief badge, our ticket stub to Eternity some might even say.
Over at NoBeliefs.com, there are some reasonably scholarly papers on religion, philosophy, science, and history. For those who claim that they have made an intelligent choice, they may want to look at certain parts of the package.
I am not saying I am in agreement with all offered at that website. I am currently reading several books that portray positions from a wide range of angles: What is GOD? by Jacob Needleman is one such book.
I like its opening 2 sentences:
To think about God is to the human soul what breathing is to the human body.
I say think about God, not necessarily to believe in God — that may or may not come later."
Sir 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh, once said while visiting and giving a talk in London: "Divine things are too deep to be expressed by common words. The heavenly teachings are expressed in parable in order to be understood and preserved for ages to come. When the spiritually minded dive deeply into the ocean of their meaning they bring to the surface the pearls of their inner significance. (Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 79)
Elsewhere, we are told Knowledge is love. Study, listen to exhortations, think, try to understand the wisdom and greatness of God. The soil must be fertilized before the seed can be sown. (Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 204)
Some kinds of knowledge make us happy and seem to strike a chord in our hearts. Sacred Texts are a kind of cord that we can cling to for life as being pulled up from a sinking ship to a helicopter hatch, or it can bind us and confine us so that we can't move and are wrapped in a glue lasso like a victim of the velvet worm. "It's glue guns weave from side to side to spread its fire. The strands glue down the victim like a sticky net. This rapid adhesive dries in seconds. The velvet worm's knife-like jaw pierces its victim before sucking it dry." Amazing weaponry by that king of the insect world!
As in the natural world, victims are ensnared with approximate logic, historical ignorance, fuzzy fluttering hearts. They and the superficial reporting squad fail to use the trowel of a sharp and alert and curious mind.
We must approach a Faith's sacred texts with a partly poetic imagination. Stories are symbolic and therefore open to more than one interpretation. Allow for variance. Accept what seems most logical and complete and comprehensive to your mind. Value what has been put in your hands. In the human and natural world, no food is the perfect food (although algae seems to be fully representative of the spectrum of required nutrients, but it doesn't have bulk).
Run with the ball (or — in soccer — kick-dribble (??) the ball) as far as you can towards the goal (line). And if you reach the goal or goal-line, be happy but not too jubilant. And don't forget that probably the game is not over yet, and new defensive formations will be out there to impend your scurrying scamper to the end-of-the-times zone.
Sorry this bloggit is long, almost having research essay like qualities. If this is the Integral Age, it is the time to show how things and people are connected.
Do I rest my case? Did I adequately dress my case? Did I clearly uncrate the freight?
(In my text editor drafting this bloggit, it takes 95 (19x5) lines of text which is a Baha'i number and the number of times a Baha'i should repeat the phrase, "God is Most Glorious" ("Allah U Abha") (different to Allah U Akbar or God is Powerful which is the taqbir of Islam) every day. Plus, I know it has nothing to do with the Jodhaa Akbar Indian movie which depicts the story of one of the Moghul (Muslim) emperors who traipsed into India and liked what he saw, or more precisely, whom he saw in the person of a Hindu princess named
Jodhaa and so began an international, interfaith marriage with all the cultural baggage and potential breaks along the seams that such a union has potential to include. As was also true, Muslims at that time entered Europe via Cordova and Alhambra, Spain were extremely wealthy due to fine standards in textiles and expertise in science and technology and engineering. They calculated how to make ribbed arches and flying buttresses, and their huge buildings brought admiration and a bit of envy from the Christian who want on soon to flaunt their own theocratic wares and wars and ware-y Gothic prayer houses (cathedrals) in spectacular Renaissance style. Read more on 3rd Moghul Emperor of India, Akbar the Great, here.
Click here for a review of that movie.
Not sure how much of all this historic past of domination, forced religious conversion, and turf taking is portrayed as being heroic and/or worthy of emulation.
I still have to do some more reading.
The song lyrics are fairly audible, but not 100%. So I paste them here below:
She took the midnight train goin' anywhere
Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train goin' anywhere
A singer in a smoky room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on
Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding, somewhere in the night
Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill
Payin' anything to roll the dice just one more time
Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on
Don't stop believin'
Hold on to that feelin'
Streetlight people
I like the energy of the song and I like the guitar solo. It has the stamp of youth on it: expressiveness, energy, observation, evaluation, taking risks, not giving up hope, questioning the system, having confidence and conviction in a brighter and better day.
Should we try to get into the lyrics at all? Should we probe beneath the electro-voltage of amps and guitar wailing and the decibels of the drummer's beat? They are all vehicles for the message, the mood conveyed, the ideas inlaid, the temper of the times assigned to a day. What words and ideas are presented there? Apart from the melody (http://vimeo.com/8497104, what other aspects of this song make it have such broad appeal?
What exactly are they believing in? Anything substantive? Themselves as noble or heroic or aspiring humans? Sharing the night with a stranger or newly found friend or acquaintance? [Famous band members pick up smiling bed mates after concert?] Aimlessness? Idle people just hanging out by a public square? The addiction of gambling?
But oh the "Streetlight people, living just to find emotion / Hiding, somewhere in the night." The unemployed, the beggars, the drifters, the outcast, the barely surviving (different from the aggressive bearly surviving). In the 13th Arabic Hidden Word, Baha'u'llah writes: I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? ..." , but also says in the 25th Arabic Hidden Word, O Son of Spirit! Vaunt not thyself over the poor, for I lead him on his way...
These images are set before us, and then whammo! we are told not to stop believing! In what? In all these things that are listed and are presumably (most of them) good? Well, all right, youth is youth, and youth is the time for identity searching. From 15 to 25, most people go there various phases and follow different fads, checking out this and that. Or some behave as if they want to extend their childhood forever. Life is for frivolities and nothing more.
How does G-d's latest Manifestation, Baha'u'llah, view the human and the phases of life? Well, first of all, the age of maturity is set at 15. This is an age technically where one can declare oneself as a Baha'i. So it is not purely a matter of inheritance and following Mom or Dad's tradition. It would therefore seem incumbent that pre-youth (from about 12 to 15) should receive special attention, special educational initiatives that would deepen them in all aspects of comparative religion, the details and depths of the Dharma Drama. One should provide as wide and thorough and unbiased a picture as possible so that the pre-youth could decide if and one they would care to declare themselves as baby Baha'is at the legal age of 15.
How is the world doing in this regard? Are there any such groups that are trying to work towards this noble goal, to address not only the physical side of maturity, but the emotional and intellectual and spiritual side, too, since each person is a 4-way intersection of those aspects?
The top administrative, globally elected body of the Baha'i Faith, The Universal House of Justice, has stressed the importance of this to the Baha'is and therefore to the world at large. Of course, each person can contemplate and make their own decision as to the importance of this.
But they would be well to recall the words of Fanny Howe in her book The Wedding Dress: Meditation on Word and Life:
She mentions Carmelite nun Edith Stein who noticed that our perception of objects requires that we notice the space around. In fact, she says that emptiness — space — teaches us to mistrust the location of the 'I' inside us... Space subsumes the structure of the person by waiting for it. Empty space precedes, succeeds, and accompanies our motions."
She calls this the zero point of orientation. Howe says more on it and even mentions that The Zohar, a collection of mystical interpretations of the Pentateuch, talks about this, equating or calling it Zero, the Supreme Will, or God.
[I intend to explore this role of the concept of Zero in both math and theology in a later bloggit. Suffice it for now to say that Zero is the only number that blows away other number, since n*0=0 for any real number that exists in the world of infinite numbers. Additively, n+0=n and this is of no benefit.
The American mathematician and inventor, R. Buckminster Fuller, gave us the equation Universe = Physical * Metaphysical. In other words, he too saw that the relationship of the reality of things involves the spiritual or metaphysical dimension and, also, that the relationship is multiplicative. Life is not a zero-sum game where one wins and the other loses. We are profoundly connected and implicated in ways that we can see only through spiritual eyes and insight.
When I was in Tanzania in the mid-70s, I correlated religion and science by putting the Baha'i modular 19-month calendar on the triangular sides of the 20-sided Platonic solid called the icosahedron. On the 20th side, I put the particular year according to the Baha'i Era count (possibly 131 or 132). I sent a copy to Bucky Fuller since he was the expert on icosahedron and all things mathematical. I did receive a thank you note back. But I was reassured in some small way when I saw that he had put that cosmic equation given above. He talked about each person's OmniDirectional Halo. Nowadays, some pop singers are catching up to the research of science and religion.
Please note that the original Icosahedral Baha'i calendar was made of gestetner stenciled paper stuck on thin cardboard that was cut out, edges interlocked, and painted blue perhaps with watercolors. There were no squishable bubbles on each triangular face, but perhaps the new version could have that.
With N people in a particular group, there are (N
Why has Baha'u'llah also told us that we should solve disputes and misunderstandings and in fact any small or serious problem through consultation. And what does anybody know or what is being taught these days about the art of consultation, the variety of religions and other credo cribs, the 4 or 16 temperaments, and the sheer diversity that is such an essential fact in the human family?
A music student who know how to write the musical score for MIDI obviously let their talent shine through in putting the song into a Mario Brothers video game version. This broadens the appeal of song, thus encouraging young people to espouse these precious values that are set forth in the song, or even to start to envy the band members and their lay-away plan.
Well, let us suppose that there are other things to believe in. Is belief something that is cast in concrete, a set of principles, historical interpretations, values, and cosmic vision that is in sympathy with our mindset? Once established, should one ever change one's beliefs? How critical should one be on this?
Those with different sets of belief may find it hard to establish any middle ground. This can give rise to cynicism, perhaps even lead to hostilities. Beliefs are seated as much in the heart as they are in the mind. This emotional response is an indication that there is something deep to this subject. We might call it our soul-ar slant, our belief badge, our ticket stub to Eternity some might even say.
Over at NoBeliefs.com, there are some reasonably scholarly papers on religion, philosophy, science, and history. For those who claim that they have made an intelligent choice, they may want to look at certain parts of the package.
I am not saying I am in agreement with all offered at that website. I am currently reading several books that portray positions from a wide range of angles: What is GOD? by Jacob Needleman is one such book.
I like its opening 2 sentences:
To think about God is to the human soul what breathing is to the human body.
I say think about God, not necessarily to believe in God — that may or may not come later."
Sir 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh, once said while visiting and giving a talk in London: "Divine things are too deep to be expressed by common words. The heavenly teachings are expressed in parable in order to be understood and preserved for ages to come. When the spiritually minded dive deeply into the ocean of their meaning they bring to the surface the pearls of their inner significance. (Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 79)
Elsewhere, we are told Knowledge is love. Study, listen to exhortations, think, try to understand the wisdom and greatness of God. The soil must be fertilized before the seed can be sown. (Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 204)
Some kinds of knowledge make us happy and seem to strike a chord in our hearts. Sacred Texts are a kind of cord that we can cling to for life as being pulled up from a sinking ship to a helicopter hatch, or it can bind us and confine us so that we can't move and are wrapped in a glue lasso like a victim of the velvet worm. "It's glue guns weave from side to side to spread its fire. The strands glue down the victim like a sticky net. This rapid adhesive dries in seconds. The velvet worm's knife-like jaw pierces its victim before sucking it dry." Amazing weaponry by that king of the insect world!
As in the natural world, victims are ensnared with approximate logic, historical ignorance, fuzzy fluttering hearts. They and the superficial reporting squad fail to use the trowel of a sharp and alert and curious mind.
We must approach a Faith's sacred texts with a partly poetic imagination. Stories are symbolic and therefore open to more than one interpretation. Allow for variance. Accept what seems most logical and complete and comprehensive to your mind. Value what has been put in your hands. In the human and natural world, no food is the perfect food (although algae seems to be fully representative of the spectrum of required nutrients, but it doesn't have bulk).
Run with the ball (or — in soccer — kick-dribble (??) the ball) as far as you can towards the goal (line). And if you reach the goal or goal-line, be happy but not too jubilant. And don't forget that probably the game is not over yet, and new defensive formations will be out there to impend your scurrying scamper to the end-of-the-times zone.
Sorry this bloggit is long, almost having research essay like qualities. If this is the Integral Age, it is the time to show how things and people are connected.
Do I rest my case? Did I adequately dress my case? Did I clearly uncrate the freight?
(In my text editor drafting this bloggit, it takes 95 (19x5) lines of text which is a Baha'i number and the number of times a Baha'i should repeat the phrase, "God is Most Glorious" ("Allah U Abha") (different to Allah U Akbar or God is Powerful which is the taqbir of Islam) every day. Plus, I know it has nothing to do with the Jodhaa Akbar Indian movie which depicts the story of one of the Moghul (Muslim) emperors who traipsed into India and liked what he saw, or more precisely, whom he saw in the person of a Hindu princess named
Jodhaa and so began an international, interfaith marriage with all the cultural baggage and potential breaks along the seams that such a union has potential to include. As was also true, Muslims at that time entered Europe via Cordova and Alhambra, Spain were extremely wealthy due to fine standards in textiles and expertise in science and technology and engineering. They calculated how to make ribbed arches and flying buttresses, and their huge buildings brought admiration and a bit of envy from the Christian who want on soon to flaunt their own theocratic wares and wars and ware-y Gothic prayer houses (cathedrals) in spectacular Renaissance style. Read more on 3rd Moghul Emperor of India, Akbar the Great, here.Click here for a review of that movie.
Not sure how much of all this historic past of domination, forced religious conversion, and turf taking is portrayed as being heroic and/or worthy of emulation.
I still have to do some more reading.
[an 8th note with blue, yellow, red strings signifying the music of life, its universality, with harmonic blue waves of peace emanating outwards]
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